


The Fog of War

by Ihasabukkit



Category: Gundam Wing, Neon Genesis Evangelion
Genre: Angst, Damaged Moody Teen Soldiers, Gen, No-one Gets Along, Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-20
Updated: 2013-06-20
Packaged: 2017-12-15 09:07:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/847760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ihasabukkit/pseuds/Ihasabukkit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Crossover AU.</p><p>After the revelation that there's another civilization in their solar system, Shinji and the other Eva children find themselves fighting side by side with darker counterparts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fog of War

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote this so long ago I was pretty much a different person, but nostalgia enticed me to plug some plot holes and try and make it readable for the first time.

Outside the classroom window rain poured onto the pavement, leaving puddles for the students to slosh through once the bell rang. Shinji leaned his chin on his hand and wished he could do that right now. Two more hours, and still their tutor droned on. It'd probably be interesting if her voice wasn't so soporific.

As always Shinji found his eyes wandering towards Rei. The silver-haired girl was staring sedately out the window.

Just yesterday she'd smiled at him. Shinji couldn't help smiling himself at the memory. Asuka had been chattering incessantly, flirting shamelessly with another student, when Shinji had walked by with some books. Her red hair, flung out with a laugh, had wapped him full-on in the face. He'd just sneezed and rolled his eyes...and looked over in time to see a subtle smile grace Rei's lips. They'd made eye contact, and Shinji had smiled back. Now, as she melted in with the grey rain behind her, she seemed like a new person.

The teacher had stopped talking, he realized, and Shinji saw her checking a beeper. "Ten minute break, class, don't leave the building. Shinji, Rei, Asuka, I'd like to see you in private please."

The class erupted into chatter, while Shinji reluctantly rose and walked down the aisle. By the time he navigated the mess of people vacating to the hallway, Rei was already at the front desk. Asuka detached from a conversation to wander over, her eyes glittering with savage interest.

The tutor seemed miffed at the interruption. "You're to return to Nerv headquarters. I have no idea why, but it's not an attack. You'll still have your reading done for tomorrow, yes?"

They nodded, Asuka adding a "harrumph."

 

* * *

 

_Holy Mother of Jesus, that beeping is annoying._

_Is it my alarm? No. Well, maybe. Howard's ship alarm, maybe? It goes off for dumb reasons, maybe that rookie mechanic set off the fire detectors again...I can't open my eyes. That can't be good, concentrate harder. Duo Maxwell don't sleep through nobody's business, this ain't...am I drugged?_

Duo felt a growing knot of panic in his stomach as he tried and failed to move his limbs. Something was urgently wrong, and he focused on his eyelids, frustrated at how heavy they were.

"Duo Maxwell! Join the living!"

With a sudden jolt Duo's body returned to his control and he was horribly, horribly awake, staring down the revoltingly long nose of Professor G.

"What the...wha...wha..."

Professor G laughed in totally unwarranted amusement, which did nothing to help lift the fog of confusion.

"What the hell, old man, what the hell did you do to me?"

The wizened old man drew back, the laughter stopping; an image, Duo realized. He was looking at a large vid screen.

"Calm down, young man, everything's fine. You're currently en route to a whole new set of circumstances."

Duo rolled panicked eyes around his environment. The drugs must have still been strong in his system, because nothing made sense... then he recognized the joystick of his Gundam, and it all came flooding back.

A meeting with G at an abandoned outer colony. Sneaking through the old man's security measures out a sheer distrust, then surprising Pestilence in a strange center room. He'd settled down for a good long talk, planning on voicing problems he saw with their current strategy, when to his utter surprise Chang Wufei had walked in as well, cool as a cucumber.

He'd felt a quick feeling of "danger" in his stomach - then nothing.

Duo flashed his eyes to the vid-screen, where G had his arms crossed, staring at him. "You better have a _damn_ good explanation for this," Duo snarled.

"I must say, Duo, you're one of the most untrusting individuals I've ever encountered."

"Ya blame me?" Duo shouted, but then immediately tried to calm himself down, before he worked himself into a real panic. Instead he looked down at himself. He was constrained by his harness but nothing else, noticed, and he was in a spacesuit. On his left arm an IV was taped to the suit, with some injection mechanism attached to the fluid bag. He angrily ripped it out and looked up at the screen through his bangs. He took a deep breath. "Explain."

"Well, if you've calmed down enough to listen."

Duo glared daggers, but otherwise didn't respond.

"Fine." G lifted his nose, making his eyes more visible under his ridiculous mushroom haircut. "You're currently en route to the planet Mars. There's no turning back, and if you try you'll run out of fuel and starve to death. I do regret having to drug you, my boy, but knowing your mercurial and strongwilled temperament, I really had no choice."

It took every ounce of Duo's self-control not to start screaming like a pirate. If there was one thing he hated... _hated_... it was having a situation forced on him by others. Especially when, he was loathe to admit, that "other" had been someone he'd allowed himself to moderately trust.

"Now, now, no need for hate, I can see your expression well enough." The old man chuckled again. "I have a new mission for you, and it's in every way a noble one, one that will help the colonies immensely."

"Oh yeah, and what mission is that? Retiring Deathsythe to an abandoned planet, locking the pilot inside to ensure safe landing, and then letting the pilot starve to death? Yeah, that'll _really_ help the colonies!"

G looked miffed. "I'm not so heartless or stupid as that, have a little faith. The mission is otherwise."

"And if I refuse said mission?"

"You won't. It's your choice, of course, but if I know you won't let innocent people perish, not when you can stop it."

G paused to glance to one side, and then Dr. J shoved his goggled head into the image. "Duo! Good to see you alive and well, m'boy." Heero's doctor. Duo's eyes narrowed, wondering what htis meant. "Wufei was just as furious as you look right now! You boys really need to loosen up a little."

Duo snarled, but then realized that physically, the Doctor had a point. His body was so tense he probably would've bounced if dropped. He mentally forced some of his muscles to relax. His mind, however, was stuck in "oh shit" mode.

"Mr. Maxwell." G pushed his compatriot to the side and tried to pull off a fatherly, kind expression, something he failed absurdly at. "How'd you like to know that Mars isn't actually abandoned? It is, in fact, rolling with all sorts of people."

"Bullshit. No one could maintain a colony without access to Earth. It's ridiculous."

"Any more ridiculous than me sending my precious Gundam to rot on an empty rock? Trust me, Mars has a very large, er, colony, I suppose you could call it. And recently it came to my attention that they're desperately in need of some assistance. And," G waggled his finger as if to emphasize the next words, "in return for such assistance, they're willing to share technology that might make this unfortunate war a thing of a past."

Duo shook his head. "We don't need new war machines," he said fervently, "that's what started the fighting in the first place. And if you're sending me to fight some other people's worthless war, I gotta say fellas, you shouldn't have wasted your damn time - "

"Don't be an idiot, Duo," G argued, "you'd give your left arm for a machine to kill Oz, don't pretend you wouldn't. And anyways, this isn't some political war I'm sending you to fight, it's desperate - "

"G!" J interrupted. "Hurry up, only thirty seconds 'til the transmission ends."

"Fine. Listen up, boy, you and Altron'll planetside in three days, so prepare. The whole planet's under attack by some sort of, um, how would you describe...aliens, of sorts. They need your help with the aliens."

Duo stared. "I am sooo up the rabbit hole."

"And above all else, do not, I repeat, DO NOT-" Dr. J shoved his huge goggled face right into the camera, "do _not_ let the public know you're not from their planet. They call Mars Earth, so you and Chang and that beautiful Gundam of G's ARE FROM EARTH. Got that?"

Duo found himself nodding dumbly.

"Good." J looked satisfied, adjusting his goggles. "Their leading military organization is called NERVE. They'll contact you. Everything else you need is on Deathsythe's computers."

Duo managed to choke out, "Wufei?"

G's eyes twinkled. "Your partner. Now listen, Duo, don't get into too much trouble - last thing we need is for you to blow their planet up. Oh, and you might want to pull that other IV out too, or you'll get a nice dose of REM sleep soon. Cheers!"

With grotesque grins and waving hands, the two men disappeared in a flash of static.

Duo decided that without a doubt, he wouldn't regret killing them some day.

 

* * *

 

"If you found a new child, we don't need one," Asuka pronounced, sitting with Shinji and Rei in a NERV conference room. Asuka looked sharply over at Rei. "Though I suppose a backup wouldn't be a bad idea for certain people..."

"Asuka, behave yourself." Ritsuko matched the sharp look, tucking a lock of short blonde hair behind her ear. "We're not replacing any of you, I promise. Though you're actually quite right about reinforcements."

Ritsuko clicked a pointer at the screen, and a series of graphics appeared. "For several years now, NERV's been researching where the angels come from. That we have yet to discover, but we did learn something interesting along the way. Who knows when the first Mars colonizations took place?"

"Seven hundred and 33 years ago," Asuka said glibly. Ritsuko nodded, pulling up new graphics.

"We know the terra-forming was successful, of course, and Mars developed as a self-sufficient colony. What you don't know is that 600 years ago, we cut off communication."

Shinji frowned, and was about to open his mouth, but Asuka beat him to the punch. "In school they told us we still have contact with Mars."

"Simple propaganda. Our governments worried that leaving communication open would lead to trade, leading to bitter power struggles and ultimately leading to war. But I can discuss this later with you. To the point, for the past couple decades, our special NERV department has kept an eye on Mars. Here's what we've discovered."

All three pilots gasped as a robotic monstrosity appeared on the screen. A tiny head, massive chest, solid, gorgeous, and so radically different from their own Eva's. It looked purely mechanical, a Samurai suit the size of a ship.

Ritsuko took a sip of water and cleared her throat. "This is the Gundam nicknamed Sandrock. There are four others, one for each colony floating around Mars."

Grainy footage of flashes and explosions appeared on the screen, and Shinji realized that they were watching a space battle, of the sorts from those ridiculous scifi movies he'd watched as a young child. Dogfights, they called them.

"For the past seven months they've been wreaking havoc on Mars in a civil war, but two gundams are currently heading towards Earth. How we managed to negotiate this is complicated; if you want to know more, I can give you a basic outline later. They'll be entering the moon's orbit within the week."

"Those machines are coming here." Asuka glared up at Ritsuko. "Are you serious? I bet they can't do a darn thing compared to ours, whats the point?"

Ritsuko glowered at the girl. "The Evas are our first defense, but only having one defense is wishful thinking. Now all three of you, listen carefully." Ritsuko clicked off the images. "You'll be working with the Gundam pilots, so you'll need to understand their psychology, their fighting habits, and vice-versa. Off the record, we ourselves aren't sure what to expect, but desperate times call for desperate measures. We're depending on you three to connect with these two pilots, both in person and suited up."

Even with the excitement of learning such new information, Shinji found himself grousing. The last thing he needed were more A-type personalities to deal with.

 

* * *

 

Ritsuko collapsed into a chair as the three young pilots filed out, watching Asuka already whispering to Shinji. When the door sealed shut she bent forward and started massaging her temple. "God, I need a cigarette."

Misato, who'd been sitting quietly to the side the whole time, propped her foot on the desk. "Kudos, my friend. That wasn't half bad, you managed to keep Asuka's trap shut without answering her questions."

"I would've answered if I'd known more, but our last communications with G were still... well, enigmatic, at best. I don't know if I like it."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry, I don't think it's too complicated." Misato leaned back with her arms behind her head, stretching. It was a sensual pose, and Ritsuko found herself wondering just how Shinji's hormones handled that woman as a guardian. "Just a mutually beneficial exchange of technology, really."

"Except they use their technology for warfare, to kill humans. I know our hands aren't clean either, but it still worries me. They could be butchers, for all we know."

 

* * *

 

"Zerofive, this is Zerotwo, come in. Zerofive, this is Zerotwo."

Yet again, Chang Wufei resisted the urge to silence the mic. He was sitting crosslegged in the cockpit of Shenlong, floating several inches above the seat in zero gravity while his body tugged gently at the harness. He was trying very hard to regain some of his uncaring calm, a calm that was being tested to a new extreme. He focused on breathing.

_There is strength in calm. There is strength in patience._

"Zerofive, pick up the goddamn mike and quit ignoring me! It's your friendly neighborhood pal, who happens to be in the same shithole of a situation as you are, like it or not, you stick up the ass self-righteous -"

That was the limit, and Wufei slammed his hand on the button to open the communications channel. The braided idiot was instantly grinning at him through the static, in his black priest-garb as always.

"Finally! Geez, man, what took so freakin long, I've been calling nonstop for four hours. Asshole."

Instead of turning off the com like he really wanted to, Wufei gave Duo the look of fury and disdain that cowed most men. The grinning boy was apparently too stupid to get the hint.

"I was gonna start singing soon, too, figured annoying you might get your attention... but apparently insults work just fine. Good to know, man, since it looks like we're partners now." Maxwell's large cobalt eyes met Wufei's, laced with sudden anger. "And don't think I'm happier about this than you are, pilot."

"Hh." Wufei crossed his arms and leaned back, studying the face in front of him. "I suppose you are aware of the situation."

"Yeah, I've been looking at the files. Not that those old fuckers told us much."

Wufei snorted in disdain at the American's blatant disrepect for the elders. "They said enough." As conniving as J was, he'd created Nataku, and Wufei had only the greatest respect for such an endeavor. Though J's latest move had definitely lessened that. He looked at the other screens, focusing on the planet that had been growing steadily larger over the last day. "We'll survive landing, then find a way to return home."

"Yeah, well don't get your hopes up." Duo looked grim. "You looked at these shuttles we're in? Sure, they'd do fine in a vacuum space landing, but where we're going? Nu-uh."

Wufei was confused by the statement. "The colony will have normal docking facilities, no doubt."

Duo's eyes narrowed. "You haven't hacked the file metalanguage yet? Figures, you probably ain't a real computer guy like me an Heero. Well, I've got news, man. Mars has atmosphere, and more than that, it's not a colony. It's a whole fucking planet, ozone, biosphere, the works."

Wufei stared in disbelief. "You're lying."

"Duo Maxwell doesn't lie, man!" The braided boy let out a hoot of laughter. "And everyone on Earth thinks it's just a dead floating rock! Can you imagine how people will react when they find out! Holy shit, I don't know how the government managed to keep that one secret. Must have all the astronomers under some kind of "speak-and-you-die" agreement."

Wufei ignored the pilot and started punching away at the computer console. Sure enough, when he applied a simple "reveal" program to the files, a whole new planet profile scrolled out of the meta-language. Duo had been smart to look, and he felt mildly irritated he hadn't thought of it himself.

"Anyways- " Duo hadn't let Wufei's inattention stem his dialogue, "these shuttles'd get massacred in reentry, so either we leave 'em in orbit or fly down in something else. Either way, looks like their space technology is pretty primitive, so transportation and fueling might be a bitch."

This was not good, and Wufei's mind struggled with the new problem. Hiding and then refueling a shuttle floating around a planet with one moon, especially in potential enemy territory, wouldn't be easy. "I'll find a way, even if I have to build my own transport. I have blueprints."

"Build your own interplanetary transport? Sure, man, whatever." A gleam of interest appeared in Duo's eye. "So, cough it up."

"Use proper speech, idiot."

"How'd J and G nab ya?" Duo leaned forward, his wide smile belying the now grave look in his eyes. "Because I'm assuming you didn't volunteer for this."

"No. I didn't." Wufei tried to lapse into silence, but slowly exhaled out his nose when Duo waited expectantly. Ignoring the boy, he knew, would only make him more obnoxious.

"Doctor O said he'd transport Nataku to space if I met with him," he curtly supplied. "I upheld the agreement."

Duo nodded thoughtfully. "Same here. I don't think I could've got Deathsythe back into space without G's help, though I hate to admit it. That man's got a real screwy understanding of favors, though, if this is his idea of breaking even. I dunno know what they did to -"

"Maxwell. If you don't have something worth saying, do me a favor and shut up."

"Geez, man, you don't hafta be an asshole, I'm just saying -"

"Shut up!" Wufei couldn't care less if he sounded childish, his patience was gone.

"Fine." Duo leaned back in his chair and gave Wufei with an unreadable look. More importantly his mouth wasn't moving, so Wufei could turn his attention back to the data.

A full minute passed, then two, and Wufei started to feel that this was getting to be almost too good...

"You do know we've been out here for a month, right?"

"Shut uh---WHAT?"

Duo burst into peals of laughter, and Wufei realized that he'd graced the moron with an unguarded look of horror. He quickly schooled his features back into what he hoped was his usual expressionless mask, with an accessory glare.

"Ahahaha, you should have seen your face, oh my God," Duo held his stomach as he gasped for air, and Wufei found himself reaching for the comlink switch. He didn't need mockery.

"Wait, don't go, man." Duo reached a hand beseechingly to the screen, trying to control himself as he sucked in a breath. "I'll be good, promise."

"Then shut up and explain."

Duo blinked at the contradictory orders, but didn't argue. "I think they hooked us up to electric muscle stimulators, to keep us from going soft. Been pumping nutrients into our bloodstream, obviously, and with the spacesuit taking care of all the stuff coming out, we were snug as rivets in a bulkhead."

A slow realization dawned on Wufei, and with it a feeling of horror. "I've left the colony without a guardian. In a whole month, OZ might have-" Wufei slammed his fist into a console. "Damn! How could I let this happen? Trapped like a stupid animal-" almost shaking with rage, he tried to bring himself back under control. With a frustrated anger, he looked at Duo's blank face. "Unlike you, I'm not fighting for glory. I'm fighting for justice, and the minute I find the means, I'm returning to Earth. You can finish the scientists' _mission_."

He spat the last word out with contempt, still shaking with emotion. How could he be so weak...trapped and manipulated like a child. Humiliated. Useless.

Refocusing, he noticed that Duo had gone very still. A silence dragged out in the cockpit, and still Duo just looked at him, his eyes practically crackling with unspoken words. Those angry words, however, never came.

"So be it, Wufei. I guess we're on our own."

And with that the vidlink shut off. While Wufei was left with the external peace he'd been craving, his thoughts ruined the effect.

 

* * *

 

"Shinji, quit looking so confused." Asuka glared at him as they mounted the steps to Misato's apartment. "If you tried thinking a little, you'd see it made sense. I already have it worked out in my head."

Shinji blinked up at her, shrugging meekly. "Maybe. There are just so many things that don't up. I mean, people on Mars can see Earth from where they are. How can they be ignorant of us?"

"People are stupid, that's why." Asuka put the key in the door, opening it with a creak.

"You can't believe that."

"Prove me wrong! I mean, all they had to do was teach their kids that our Earth was their Mars. That's not hard, and people believe anything. Oh yeah, did you know Misato's having an affair with Ritsuko?"

"WHAT?"

"Just kidding!" Asuka taunted in a singsong voice. "See, even you're dumb as a stump sometimes. Guess that leaves saving the world up to me..."

Shinji sighed and set down his books, Asuka rummaging around in the refrigerator. He tried not to focus on the butt shamelessly sticking out of the appliance.

"I'm not going to think about it too hard," Asuka said as Shinji sat at the table. "Otherwise I'll drive myself crazy." She sighed dramatically, looking heavenward as she emerged with an arm full of sandwich makings. "They could be devastatingly handsome, heroic men fighting for their cause against all odds, kind hearted, intelligent, brave..."

"They might be women."

"Humph. Well, that would be alright, too, I guess. So long as I get to pick their brains. I mean, these people are from an entirely different civilization, and _I'm_ gonna be one of the only people to interact with them! It's the anthropological opportunity of a lifetime!"

"Uh huh. I wonder what they'll think about us." Shinji thought over what he had to say. "We're only fourteen...and..."

"And you seem like a twelve year old wimp who can't operate a toaster? Yeah, you can worry, but I plan to impress." Asuka stretched out her full length with a smirk, smugly watching Shinji squirm. "You and Rei might want to work on your images a bit, be more confident or something. Otherwise I bet these guys will walk all over you."

Asuka took her sandwich and left Shinji alone in the kitchen, the conversation (albeit largely one-sided) considered closed. Shinji felt a butterfly of eager anticipation in his stomach, a feeling he hadn't felt for quite some time. Normally it was too muted out by the dread.


End file.
